R
RS-232
Please bear with me, I’m just an ordinary customer and not an electrician, but I’m slowly acquiring a basic idea of the technology, thanks to the helpful posts from the many experts on this forum.
Please could someone spare a little of their valuable time to explain something that I’m struggling to get my head around - how a PV system connected to the mains can actually work in certain instances?
If I understand some older discussions correctly, an inverter always tries to give a greater output voltage than the mains, so that current flows out of the inverter into the house circuits and if there’s any to spare, into the mains (exporting).
If the panels aren’t producing any electricity (at night) then all the power required in the house flows from the mains and none from the inverter.
What I don’t understand is the situation where the inverter is producing electricity, but not enough to supply all the power needed in the house. I can see that some will be supplied from the inverter and some from the mains, because the lights are flashing on both the generation meter and the domestic meter at the same time. But how can this be, because the inverter and mains are tied together at a connector block and if the inverter is giving an output voltage greater than the mains, current shouldn’t be imported from the mains at all, as it would be flowing ‘uphill’?
There must be an explanation for this, since as far as I can see, it shouldn’t work but obviously does!
Please could someone spare a little of their valuable time to explain something that I’m struggling to get my head around - how a PV system connected to the mains can actually work in certain instances?
If I understand some older discussions correctly, an inverter always tries to give a greater output voltage than the mains, so that current flows out of the inverter into the house circuits and if there’s any to spare, into the mains (exporting).
If the panels aren’t producing any electricity (at night) then all the power required in the house flows from the mains and none from the inverter.
What I don’t understand is the situation where the inverter is producing electricity, but not enough to supply all the power needed in the house. I can see that some will be supplied from the inverter and some from the mains, because the lights are flashing on both the generation meter and the domestic meter at the same time. But how can this be, because the inverter and mains are tied together at a connector block and if the inverter is giving an output voltage greater than the mains, current shouldn’t be imported from the mains at all, as it would be flowing ‘uphill’?
There must be an explanation for this, since as far as I can see, it shouldn’t work but obviously does!